Learning about the European Union - 22 schools awarded the Jan Amos Comenius prize - Main contents

Ahead of Europe Day tomorrow, the European Commission is today awarding the Jan Amos Comenius Prize for high-quality teaching about the European Union. The prize goes to 22 secondary schools from across Europe that teach about the European Union in a creative way. It highlights the importance of teaching and learning about the EU in an inspirational way.

Commission Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas said: “Awarding the Jan Amos Comenius Prize for the first time today to schools and teachers for their creative efforts in teaching about the European Union and its values is highly symbolic. On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Schuman declaration, which is the root of a project of peace based above all on European solidarity, schools and pupils across Europe experience a disruptive situation unknown since the war. Seventy years later, it is only through such creative efforts and solidarity that we will be able to overcome this crisis and rebuild even stronger than before.”

Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel said: "Learning about the European Union at school is not a luxury, it is a necessity. We need to enhance citizens' knowledge and understanding of the European Union from an early age. Our schools can foster critical awareness of the European Union and a sense of belonging to it, in ways that inspire. I am pleased that this prize is giving recognition and visibility to such valuable work.”

Each winning school will receive a prize of 8,000 euro and a trophy.

Background

The Jan Amos Comenius Prize for high-quality teaching about the European Union is a contest for secondary schools across the EU. The EU-wide contest was launched on 6 November and schools from 24 Member States applied. External independent evaluators assessed each application. The evaluators identified 22 winners (see Annex). The prize is a pilot project proposed by the European Parliament and implemented by the European Commission.

The prize-winning schools employ a wide range of engaging methods in their teaching about the European Union.

In 2018, the Council Recommendation Promoting Common Values, Inclusive Education and the European Dimension of Teaching identified teaching and learning about the origins, values and functioning of the EU as a policy priority. The prize aims to present good practice in teaching geared towards the objectives of the Recommendation.

Jan Amos Comenius (in Czech: Jan Amos Komenský) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considered the father of modern education. He served as the last bishop of the Unity of the Brethren before becoming a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna. As an educator and theologian, he led schools and advised governments across Protestant Europe through the middle of the seventeenth century.

For more information

Watch the award video and Commissioner Gabriel's message here.